


Embassy Village

by chikiko (Chikiko)



Category: Mass Effect, Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, Mass Effect Setting, Minor Shepard/Liara T'Soni, Shepard & crew are only spoken about, Time Travel, background female Shepard, but in the background - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-25
Updated: 2016-09-25
Packaged: 2018-08-17 06:02:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8133019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chikiko/pseuds/chikiko
Summary: Instead of sending them back in time to the enchanted forest, Zelena's portal sends Emma and Regina into the Storybrooke's future. They must now try to find a way to return back to their time. Slight crossover into the Mass Effect Universe.





	

A/N: So I was eager to post this story, so I'm posting it unbeta'd. Unfortunately, my betas have busy lives and were unable to get through everything. Once they get the chance to go over it, I'll update with the appropriate corrections.

Emma Swan was, admittedly, a novice magic user. However, in the small timespan she'd been familiar with magic, she came to one undeniable conclusion. Portals really sucked! Despite how much she enjoyed playing the portal videogame with Henry, actually using them was such a huge pain. She was sent through her first portal, when she was like barely 20 minutes old, to avoid Regina's, supposedly, evil "dark curse." That, of course, left her alone and unwanted by almost everyone for 28 years. Then, while trying to save Regina's life after the first curse broke, she got sent through another portal. For that trip, she was stuck in the now near ghost town of a realm that was the Enchanted Forest with her mother, who was the same age as her; an unlikely pairing that she mentally started calling sleeping warrior; and of course Regina's psycho of a mother. Oh, and who could ever forget the time that her ex's fiancée and her manstress, who had a major grudge against Regina, kidnapped their son and took him to Neverland?

Finally, came her most recent trip through a portal. She'd been fighting with Regina ever since the brunette heard of her plan to take Henry out of the craziness that always seemed to take place in Storybrooke. The fight had started in the diner with Henry, her parents, and Hook all present, each putting in their own two cents. So, she tried to retreat to get some space and think. Regina, however, wouldn't let it go and followed her to the docks to continue their fight. Not that she could really blame her, it had to do with Henry leaving and she hadn't exactly talked to her about it yet. Before their argument could get very far, a giant blue pillar of magic rising from Zelena's old barn interrupted them. Seeing that Zelena was working on a spell to go back in time to change history, they knew they had to go investigate. Though it was unlikely the time spell, as they had taken back all the needed components, they couldn't afford someone accidentally going back in time and messing things up.

Her luck being what it was, the swirling pillar of blue magic sucked her and Regina and spat them out into the middle of a field of sunflowers. That might not have actually been so bad, if she had landed on nice soft dirt. Instead, she landed hard and rolled along the ground a bit until she smacked her head against some stupid rock. So now she not only didn't know when, much less where, she was, she had a freaking headache to go with it. The cherry on top of all of this was that Regina was likely going to bitch for not listening to her. Given all that, it was easy to see why she really hated portals.

Sitting up, the blonde looked around the rather tall sunflower field. She saw Regina getting up even as the pillar of blue magic faded away into nonexistence. The time seemed to be after sunset as there was still a little light out but it was quickly fading away. Thankfully, it wasn't all that cold out. Standing up, she tried to pat as much dirt off of herself as she could manage. "Ugh, any ideas where and/or when we are? Please tell me this isn't the Enchanted Forest. I was already there once, and that was more than enough for me."

Regina looked about the bright yellow field for a few seconds before nodding to herself. "Well you can relax in that regards Ms. Swan, we are not in the Enchanted Forest. In fact … I'm fairly sure we're still in Storybrooke."

Emma sagged in relief. "Oh thank God, but … wait … how can you tell? I don't exactly remember Storybrooke having a huge sunflower field. Looking at all these sunflowers makes me feel like I should start preparing for a zombie apocalypse."

Noting the blank look and raised eyebrow, Emma couldn't help rolling her eyes. "Geez Regina, haven't you ever played any video games with the kid? It's a game called Plants vs Zombie, me and Henry used to play it all the time … Oh wait … never mind, sorry, I got it for him when we were in New York."

Emma shook her head to help her get her mind back on track. "Anyway, it's not really that important, but.… I don't exactly remember seeing a field like this anywhere, so how can you tell that this is really Storybrooke? It's not like there's a "Welcome to Storybrooke" sign anywhere, so for all we know this really is some crazy video game world. Unless … wait, are you really sure this is Storybrooke? Because if fairytales, myths, legends, and Frankenstein are all real, then who is to say that video games can't be either? I already had to deal with zombies once thanks to your mom. So I'm going to be really pissed if Zelena somehow sent us to fight zombies with crazy overgrown plants."

The former mayor could only watch in bewilderment as Emma began pacing. Suddenly, the blonde whirled on her, an almost desperate look on her face. "Regina, PLEASE tell me you're not into zombies too, because right now it seems your whole family is obsessed with them. You know what? As soon as we get home, I am deleting every episode of The Walking Dead and izombie from my DVR and I'm banning Henry from ever playing another zombie related game for the rest of his life!"

Regina sighed, as the blonde worked herself into a zombie related frenzy. "EMMA! Calm down! I've already told you we're in Storybrooke. I am, in fact, quite positive about it. The portal did NOT send us to a realm overrun with zombies nor have I ever had a penchant for the undead. The reason I know we're in Storybrooke is because of the magic."

To illustrate her point, she summoned a floating fireball above them to both show the blonde and to provide illumination, now that it appeared the night's darkness would soon encompass them . "Not only is there magic here, but it feels similar to the magic in Storybrooke."

Emma looked at her in shock. If Regina hadn't known better, she would have thought, from the look on her face, that the blonde had never seen magic before. Soon enough though, the younger woman closed her eyes in concentration, as she tried to feel the magic. After a minute or so of concentrating, she opened her eyes again. "Ya, ok I think I can sense the magic, but what do you mean by it feels like Storybrooke?"

Regina hummed in thought for a few seconds. "That's actually somewhat difficult to describe. I wasn't immediately able to tell the difference myself when magic first came to Storybrooke, because of how long I'd been without it. However, I guess ... have you ever associated a smell with someone or something? When I was a child, my grandmother wore a certain perfume that she had imported from her homeland. Whenever we would visit the palace, she would embrace me so tightly that her scent would still linger on me for hours. Years later, during my reign as the 'Evil Queen,' I visited her homeland and while walking through their palace courtyard, I smelled her perfume. I was instantly taken back to when I was a child visiting my grandmother. I had gone there to bully the kingdom into an unfavorable trade deal. However, after smelling her perfume on a random woman in the courtyard, I couldn't bring myself to do it. In the end we had signed a mutually beneficial treaty that lasted till the day the curse brought everyone to Storybrooke."

Regina shook her head to clear herself of the nostalgia that had overtaken her and made her reveal such an intimate story about herself to the blonde. "Anyway, my point is just like we sometimes associate smells, textures, or sounds with people or places, so too can we associate the different magic of each realm. Think about …." Regina trailed off as she tried to think of an example. Finally and idea came to her and she snapped her fingers. "Think of the trigger and being in the mines. Do you remember how you said it felt as if all the air was being sucked out?"

Emma nodded her head slowly as she thought back to the incident. "Good, that's actually a good example of what it feels like when magic changes. So just think about how you felt as you were going into the mine and how you felt as you left it and returned to the normal feel of Storybrooke."

"But it doesn't really feel like anything. I mean it just feels normal."

"Well that's only natural for you. Storybrooke is where you became accustomed to the feel of magic. It's like hearing someone who speaks the same accent as you. Because you are familiar with it, they sound as if they don't have an accent. However, if you were to go to another country they might say that you have an American accent."

"Ya, you're right. You know to tell you the truth, that time I went with Gold to New York to find Neal; I kept feeling like something was off a little. It almost kinda felt like I was a little short of breath. Like there was less oxygen in the air or something. I mean it wasn't like anything huge, it was just kinda like this niggling thing in the background. I mean, I didn't even feel it all the time. So I didn't think too much about it, because we were in New York. You know? I guess I probably thought it was because of pollution or because I was worried about forgetting to tell you about the trip. I mean it was like super last minute. Gold just showed up at the loft and basically threatened to kill everyone if we didn't help. So in all the confusion, I just kinda forgot to call or leave you a voicemail or something. Sorry about that."

Regina waved her off. "Don't worry about it. We weren't exactly on speaking terms at the time. It … it was probably for the best that you did take him then, considering everything that was going on at the time. I would probably have completely fallen in line with my mother had I been able to get Henry. In any case, it will be dark soon and we have yet to move from where we've landed. Shall we head back toward town?"

Sensing her need to change the topic, Emma nodded her head and readily agreed. "Ya sure, and while we go you can keep helping me figure out how to tell that we're in Storybrooke."

Regina turned eastward, opposite of the last vestiges of light, with Emma following closely behind. Neither spoke for a couple of minutes as they walked and looked about trying to figure out where in Storybrooke they were. They soon gave up though, as it was too dark to really tell. "So you've said that when you were in the mines while the trigger was absorbing the town's magic, that it felt like the air was getting thinner. You have also noted that while you were in New York, a land without magic, that each breath you took felt as if it didn't have quite enough air. However, in Storybrooke, where there is magic, everything feels normal to you. Does that about summarize your experience?"

Emma pursed her lips and nodded her head a few moments later, looking both surprised and enlightened at the same time. "Ya, I think so. So I guess that means I can tell if there's magic somewhere or not. But that's more like knowing that someone is or isn't speaking English. That doesn't help me tell them apart."

"Are you sure? You have now been to Neverland and the Enchanted Forest. If Storybrooke is your normal, did either of these two places feel different to you in the same way that New York felt different from Storybrooke?"

Emma closed her eyes in concentration and shortly thereafter walked right into a sunflower. Batting the sunflower away, she responded to the olive skinned woman, "I'm not sure."

"Look around. It's dark now, and we're walking through a field of vegetation on an apparently warm summer's night. I would even bet we're likely as far from the shore now as when we were in the middle of Neverland. Aside from the humidity, this really isn't all that different from being there. Think carefully. Run your hands along the plants if you need too. Compare the two experiences and find the missing quality between them. It seems as if you've made a mental link between magic and air. Try to focus on that, but not exclusively. Allow any sensational difference you can think of to bubble up."

Emma did as was asked of her. She slowed her pace until she was barely walking while running her hands through the plants. She remembered once, as they had been walking, there was a low hanging branch in her way that she had pushed aside to pass. However, when she let it go, it flew back in place and smacked Regina right in the face. She remembers cringing at that and closing her eyes while she waited for the tongue-lashing Regina was bound to give her. But she never said a word to her about it. She had just continued to trek through the forest. Kinda like she was doing now, patiently waiting in the middle of a sunflower field in God-only-knows-where Storybrooke.

Meanwhile, Regina watched as the younger woman brought her fingers to her chin as she contemplated her time in Neverland. Despite herself, she couldn't help being amused by the ridiculously scrunched up face the blonde was making in an effort to concentrate. The similarity between the look she was making and the one she'd often seen Henry make in a similar situation amazed her, more so because it was something shared only by them. She had never seen either Snow or Charming make a face like that, and while she had barely known Neal, she didn't think it came from that side of the family either. Therefore, he only shared that trait, which she found so adorable on him, with his dummy of a mother.

She used to hate it whenever she found those kinds of similarities between them. She didn't want that woman to have anything in common with her son. She had loved and cared for him all those years, but as time wore on, she found she couldn't continue to hate the woman who had given her the greatest gift of her life. Even now, when she wanted to take him from her and escape to New York, she couldn't really hate her for doing what she herself wished she could do. Not to say she wasn't angry, because in the blondes own words she was "royally pissed off." She would simply have to make the blonde realize that despite how wonderful the life she had given them in New York may have been, she had responsibilities here in Storybrooke.

Well, the Storybrooke from whence they came. While she was sure they were currently in Storybrooke, Emma was certainly correct in that a field of Sunflowers taller then either of them has never existed whilst she lived here. Nevertheless, since magic only came to Storybrooke after Emma broke the curse, that would mean Zelena's time travelling portal took them to the future instead of the past. Another fine mess Emma got them into. With luck, which was unlikely since she was considering herself and Ms. Swan, they wouldn't have traveled too far in time and they wouldn't need to find a way back.

Regina glanced back at Emma who was surprisingly still in thought. She was usually far too impatient for this level of meditation. Normally, she'd start whining within twenty seconds, much less the several minutes she'd currently been at it. Regina would have thought Emma was asleep if she hadn't seen the woman move about periodically. The brunette was wondering how much longer she should wait to say something to her, when the blonde solemnly said, "Ozone."

The former evil queen could only stare blankly at the younger woman in confusion. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Ozone. Neverland, the magic there was like ozone." Seeing the older woman wasn't following, she continued her explanation. "Have you ever been caught by a storm while you're outside? Just before a storm hits, as the wind starts picking up, you can smell it. It's like this really strong pervasive smell that just overpowers you, but it's also kinda acidic or like electrically charged, you know? As for the forest ... I can't really remember my time over there very well, since I didn't even know I had magic then, so I might not be all that accurate. But I think it might have been kinda similar. But instead of like a thunderstorm, it's just regular rain. You get that blast of wind and that smell of grass or whatever it is that you smell before the rain. So it's fuller but not as charged. Am I making any sense?"

Regina looked at the Emma with a bit of amazement. "That was surprisingly descriptive Ms. Swan, and though I would never use those comparisons, I do believe they are in fact quite apt. I'm rather impressed actually."

Emma's face lit up in a big smile and though it was hard to see, the former queen could see her face turn red. "Really!? I mean, it really wasn't stupid or anything? Because I mean it sounded kinda … uh … I don't know … dumb I guess? It was a bit of a shot in the dark, but you know I can try again if you want…."

"Emma!" Regina said, interrupting the rambling girl. "I meant it. It was very insightful. Given, as you have already stated, your limited exposure to it at the time, your description of magic there is actually quite accurate. My saying that it isn't how I might have described it shouldn't take away from the fact that your description was really quite good. Remember that in my case, I not only grew up in the forest, it is also where I learned to use magic. That would put a different spin on how I perceive magic that isn't relevant to your experience. It's why I had such a hard time using magic when it first arrived, and why it felt as if magic worked differently here."

Emma's face was positively beaming from Regina's words. As they resumed their walk, the blonde's shy smile remained on her face. After a few minutes of walking, Emma turned to Regina with a question, "So … how do we get back?"

Regina sighed. "I honestly don't know. If we're lucky, we won't be too far off from our own time. That way if we can't find a way back, we can stay here and we can try to pick up where we left off. That said, this sunflower field wasn't around in our time, so at best we're looking at a few years of displacement."

Emma groaned at Regina's words, "A couple of years?! I mean ... I guess that's better than being sent back to the forest. Who knows what could have happened. Knowing me, I might have accidentally stopped my parents from getting married and then we'd really be in trouble! So overall I guess it's not so bad, but don't you think it'll be weird having two of us around?"

The incongruity of that last statement caused Regina to stop to stare at the blond in confusion. "Why on earth would there be two of us?"

Emma gave Regina her best "duh" face. If we've gone back a couple of years or so, that means we've already lived through all of this before. So we'll have us, and the past us who are living through all of this for the first time. That probably means we're going to have to find a way to hide, unless you wanna risk changing time by revealing what's happened to us."

Regina could only blink at her companion in disbelief. "Emma. Magic only came to Storybrooke after you broke the curse. So unless you are aware of a sunflower field in town that I am not aware of, we are in the future!"

The blonde stared at her in bewilderment. "The … future?! But … what? Are you sure? No, you're right ... that does make sense, but … what are we gonna do Regina? What'll Henry think if we've jump too far? What if he won't want to see us, because he thinks we abandoned him or something?"

"I'm sure that won't be the case, Emma. Henry knows, without a doubt, we would never willingly leave him. As I said, if we can't find a way back then hopefully we are not that far into the future. However, knowing Rumple as I do, I'm sure he must have learned something about time travel that can be useful to us. We'll just have to convince him to help."

Emma opened her mouth to reply when something suddenly caught her attention in the distance. "Um … do we have helicopters in Storybrooke?"

Regina gave Emma an incredulous look, "Of course not! Do you know how much that would cost? Our crime, traffic, and medical needs are well below the levels to even consider one. Why on earth would you even ask?"

Pointing over Regina's shoulder, Emma said, "Well that fast incoming search light screams helicopter to me."

Regina quickly turned to look at what Emma was referring to. Sure enough, in the distance, but quickly drawing closer, was a bright swiveling beam of light heading their way from the northeast. The mayor was taken aback, especially when she caught sight of another spotlight coming up behind the first. "So uh … I'm gonna guess that Storybrooke having two helicopters isn't exactly great news for us?"

Regina sighed deeply. "Yes, Ms. Swan, two helicopters is so far beyond our operating budget that we're likely decades in the future."

"Decades?" The blonde asked in disbelief, "So what … we could be like grandparents now? I just got used to being a mom and suddenly I'm gonna be a grandma?"

The former queen rubbed her finger over her temples at the thought. "At the very least, I would hate to think of you as being anyone's great grandmother. Just imagining of all of our, no doubt, numerous great grandchildren being exposed to your vast array of bad habits, boggles the mind." Seeing Emma's pale faced bugged eyed look at her words, Regina couldn't help but laugh despite the situation.

Seeing the light begin to swivel in a search like pattern, the former queen said, "Well, it looks like they're aware of us, and since I'm not that eager to walk all the way back to town, how about we let them know where we are?"

With a wave of her hand, the fireball that had been hovering above them began shooting off streams of fireworks above their heads, creating an obvious flare. "Well that's one way to attract their attention. I guess we'll find out the truth soon enough. I bet you Henry got married to someone like Ava and now he's got like a full beard and a beer belly!"

"Ava Zimmerman? Are you out of your mind? Paige would obviously make a much better choice for him."

"Jefferson's kid? Are you serious? I mean I don't really know too much about her, but can you imagine having Jefferson over for holidays or other life events? The guy kidnapped me to make a freaking magic hat. Which ... ok, it doesn't sound as crazy now, but … still … I mean come on!"

"Despite her father's obvious shortcomings, Paige is actually a really sweet girl. While I would never dream of telling Henry who he may see, I can't imagine that there would be a better pairing for him than her."

The younger blonde looked at her in amazement. "That's a lot of praise coming from you."

The olive skinned woman looked down. "I ..."

The former queen never got the chance to complete her thought, as three spotlights fell on them. However, instead of helicopters as they had thought, the searchlights originated from what Emma thought looked like the love child of a futuristic flying station wagon and a minivan … with ... leg modules? It was both disturbing and disheartening, as it meant they may have once again underestimated the extent of their time jump. Flying, or hovering, cars could either mean, some interesting new technological breakthrough or they were much futher in the future. Most Sci-fi shows she could think of were often set somewhere between the 23rd to 28th century. How would they even begin to explain their stories to these people, more over how would they get back.

Before the blonde could ponder those questions very long, two of the flying cars began to move closer to the ground. Although she couldn't see them very well, the sheriff saw a few armed bodies jump out of the sliding door of the flying car before they touched down. "Hello! Can you help us?"

"Setihhñen te aj setihhñüko velavhhte," Said a female sounding voice from within the darkness in front of them.

Not understanding what the female sounding voice said, Emma turned to Regina. "Do you understand that? Is that like some kinda language where you guys are from?"

Regina shook her head. Before she had a chance to say anything, however, the woman repeated herself once again while entering the light so they could see her. The woman's appearance made them both gasp. She held a large sleek looking gun at them and wore some kind of full body leather armor with lots of buckles and a hexagonal scale pattern. However, what truly shocked them was her face. It was blue with symmetrical white markings around her eyes and extending up toward her … well, instead of hair she had three pairs of … she supposed they could be tentacles ... but as they were lying flat and unmoving against her head, it was hard to tell for sure. It was too dark to tell her eye color, but she could just barely make out the smallest amount of texturing to her skin. She assumed the texturing to be a scale like pattern similar to her armor. Simply put, the woman in front of them was an alien like in those shows Henry watched and nothing like anything/anyone she'd ever seen in the Enchanted Forest.

Emma could only stare at the blue-skinned alien woman in front of her, and ask herself, how her life went from living fairy tales to star trek and star wars? Great, why did she stop watching sci-fi? Ok. Aliens on earth, what does that tell her? Well, it could mean either earth has been conquered by them, or hopefully that they're peacefully cohabitating here. So … not much. They do have weapons. So they could be conquerors, but if that were the case, they probably would've shot first and asked questions later. Or at the very least, they would have immediately tried to take them down. Therefore, the best option, in every possible way, seemed to be that they are peaceful cohabitants. The fact they're weaponized is likely because they're local law enforcement. Which, to be honest, seems to be the case. They're not acting hostile despite the weapons, so they probably saw the pillar and came to investigate. Having found them not too far from the source of that mysterious light, they're probably asking them to identify themselves and state they're reasons for being here.

Raising her hands and hoping they understood English, she said, "We mean you no harm, we're just lost and trying to make our way to the city. We're unarmed." Ok that was only technically true, since there was obviously magic here. But more importantly, they didn't actually have any physical weapons, so it was still actually true.

The blue skinned woman eyed her suspiciously, and spoke again, "setihhtez denz sumbae rena. Setihhasari desa rena, tezoun rena setihhayana venikuhhtez atara."

Emma cringed. She hoped that after hearing them, they might respond back in English. But that was obviously not the case. "um, sorry. I uh no comprende tus idioma."

Regina couldn't help but roll her eyes. "For heaven's sake Emma, if they didn't respond to your English, why on earth do you think they'd respond to your broken Spanish?"

Emma shrugged. "How the heck am I supposed to know, it was worth a shot I guess."

Thankfully, the alien woman spoke again before Regina could really lay into her over her attempts to communicate. At least she tried something. The woman began pointing to her wrist, "setihhtezoun balsenimihhrotahn."

Emma shook her head. "Nope, sorry still can understand you."

The woman frowned at her, and said something louder to the others around her, before she lowered her gun and pressed a finger to her wrist. Suddenly a bright orange holographic wheel popped up and she began typing on it like it were a keyboard or a touch screen. After a few minutes she spoke again. "setihhtezoun balsenimihhrotahn? Baj thesallakonta."

Before either had the chance to say anything they heard a digital voice coming from the orange wheel. "Are your omnitools broken?"

Emma and Regina looked at themselves. Both looked questioningly at the other. "Uhh? What are those?"

They heard one of the other's say something but weren't able to make it out, until the orange wheel translated again. "Godess help us!"

The lead alien woman shook her head, "kalabokidreahhte." The wheel shortly thereafter translated that as 'please shut up'. A slew of alien language was spoken again and as before, it was translated. "Ok, I don't know what's going on with you two, but you're in the Embassy Village now. We're going to take you back to the Embassy security station while we investigate what's going on. If it turns out you just happen to stumble on Embassy Lands and nothing suspicious is going on, we'll have a shuttle drop you off where ever you're from. But if we find out you're with Terra Firma or Cerberus … well, let's just say neither of us will be very happy."

Signaling to the flying car that brought them there, she motioned for them to get in, before speaking into her wrist. They heard a few responses as they all began making their way into the flying car. They also noted that they didn't get a translation of the message this time. The car they entered was fairly large, with three rows of seats. You could easily forgive someone for thinking the car was a small limo. Emma noted that despite the extra row of seats, there was some kind of energy field separating the back row from the rest of the car. Which of course, they were not so coincidentally lead to sit in that row. Emma's suspicions about them seemed to be panning out, as this was obviously a police car; they were treated with the suspicion warranted to potential troublemakers.

To their surprise, the car lifted itself gently into the air with none of the force or jerkiness one might have expected; their trip into town went equally as smooth. Once on their way, the one who had been addressing them turned toward them and spoke; her holographic computer quickly translated the message. "Having to speak through this kind of translator is a bit cumbersome, so once we get to the station, we'll issue you some temporary omnitools to help speed things along, as I'll have to ask you several questions and it'll take too long if we have to sit around and wait while it does the translations. But for now, let me just start with your names and where you're from."

The blonde looked at her companion and shrugged. "I'm Emma Swan and this is Regina Mills, we're both from Storybrooke Maine, which is actually where we were headed, but we must have gotten turned about in the field."

At her words, Emma noticed the other two aliens in the car suddenly turn their heads towards them. The driver began speaking but was interrupted by the one who had been talking with them. As she began speaking again, the translator began interpreting. "Did she just say ... Yes, now get back to driving. We'd better let the matriarch know, she'll probably have to get involved anyway."

"Ok, What just happened there?" After waiting a bit in silence, she asked again, "Hello? Can someone explain what just happened?"

"Just wait till we get to the station, it'll be easier to communicate. Besides we're almost there," said the translator once again. Before either of them could say anything, they began to see the lights of the city below them. They were shocked. The city had grown immensely, both outwardly and upwardly, as there were now several large, tall buildings in Storybrooke. But despite all the changes they could see of the city, there in what was the heart of the new 'Embasy village' was the old Storybrooke. Though dwarfed by the larger buildings further out, they could easily see the clock tower over the library, which, for all intent and purposes, was the most iconic building in Storybrooke. Around it, the city didn't seem much different. They could see many of the buildings they recognized including Regina's mansion in the distance. As the car began descending, it didn't take a genius to figure out where they were heading, the Storybrooke Sheriff's department.

As they landed in the parking lot, they could see the, seemingly perfectly preserved, sign that still read Storybrooke Sheriff's department. Above it was a holographic sign that read, "Embassy Village Security & Protection Office." in English and likely three alien languages. Around them were other flying cars with aliens wearing similar uniforms walking about. Two things that immediately stood out to them, were the complete lack of humans, and the fact that all of the many nearby aliens walking around were women.

Once inside, they were again presented with more alien women at desks scattered about the station. In Emma's opinion, it was pretty impressive considering the size of the room. Aside from her office, which was in a separate glass walled room, her station could only accommodate four desks. The aliens, it seemed, where much more economical with their use of the space. They had several tiny desks, barely larger than what you might find in your average grade school, setup all about the station. However, they made up for their lack of space with holographic technology and the device they wore on their wrist. Most of the desks where pushed against the wall allowing for much more open space, especially since the bars to the holding cells were removed. Instead of bars, a blue barrier of some kind was containing the holding cells' single occupant. She didn't have enough training to know if it was magic or some kind of futuristic type of force field. Given that they were in Storybrooke, where there was magic, as well as being in the future, it could honestly go either way.

They were lead to the Sherriff's office and motioned to sit. Ironically despite the outer station's make over, her former office looked relatively unchanged. In fact … that desk WAS, literally, her former desk. She could see the swan that she had carved into the desk to irritate Regina during her early days as sheriff. The office retained its clear glass walls and her desk sat right in the middle as it always had. On the desk sat an old fashion nameplate, with a name once again written in four languages. Despite the sign on the glass door proclaiming the room as the Sherrif's office, the English translation of the nameplate stated its owner was Captain Erinya L'Chell.

They didn't have to wait very long. Soon another alien woman wearing the same kind of hexagonal scale uniform as the others came in. One noticeable distinction was the Storybrooke Sheriff's badge attached to a chain and worn as a necklace. It was the most human like thing either had seen yet. She also carried a small gun like object. However, it seemed less like a weapon and more like a sticker gun that you might use in a supermarket to label prices or expiration dates. Looking at them, the captain made a motion for them to roll back their sleeves, before verbalizing in a distinctly accented English, "Raise your arm sleeve up please."

Seeing the hesitancy in the women before her, the captain once again tried to reassure them. "Helpthis us to tock better. Is my English not the best."

Emma looked at Regina for a moment before looking back at the label gun warily. "So you're saying if we let you shoot us that we'll somehow be able to communicate better?"

Emma looked quite skeptical, still if they were basically asking their permission, it couldn't be too bad. Before she could say anything however, Regina beat her to it. "We may as well; they don't seem to be having any problems understanding us."

Regina extended her arm out to the woman. Seeing the captain approaching Regina's arm with the label gun thing, Emma quickly extended her arm out over Regina's. The captain took her action in stride and pressed the label gun to her arm. As the trigger was pressed, the former sheriff heard the sound of air hissing from the gun as well as a small, nearly painless pinch where the gun touched her.

The captain withdrew the gun for a few moments, knowing she wouldn't be allowed to continue until the blonde perceived it safe enough for her companion. It only took a few seconds before the protective woman withdrew her arm to allow her to repeat the same process with the other woman. Casting a quick glance at her, she once again placed the gun to the brunette's arm and pressed the trigger. Satisfied, she turned to address both women. "Waitplease ten minutes for work. ReturnI'll then."

Once the captain had left the room, Regina turned to look at Emma questioningly. "While I appreciate it, what was with that sudden bout of charming chivalry?"

Emma shrugged. "I just figured it'd be smarter for me to go first. After all, if they had been up to something, you could use your magic to deal with it. Not only are you better at it then me, but I can't even use magic anymore. Besides, while I only know the basics of chess, even I know you don't sacrifice your queen for a knight unless you need to."

Regina was impressed with the analogy, but chose not to comment on it as the woman's words about her magic caught her by surprise. With Zelena defeated, there shouldn't have been anything preventing Emma from accessing her magic. Not only that, Emma had been able to sense the magic as they walked through the sunflower field. Had Zelena's spell still been in effect that wouldn't have been possible. Besides, if she focused on the blonde, she could easily sense the blonde's magic just below the surface. If the blonde was unable to use her magic, then it had to be psychological in nature. Though she wasn't sure how they'd get back to their time, she was sure she'd likely need Emma's help to do so. When next they had time, she'd have to work with her to break down her mental barriers.

After a few minutes passed, the younger woman asked, "Do you feel any different?"

"What?" the former mayor asked.

"I asked you if you feel any different? It's been a while and aside from a small pinch like feeling, I haven't felt any different. So how was all that supposed to help us?"

"I don't know. From the technology I've seen about, we are quite a bit into the future. It is almost as extensive a change from our time as our time is to the Enchanted Forest. I couldn't even begin to imagine what that might do."

Emma frowned deeply. "Ok, let's test it then."

Regina raised an eyebrow. "How, pray tell, would you like to do that?"

"Well … Start talking to me in Spanish."

"What?! What would even give you the idea that I know Spanish?"

"Aside from the surprisingly large collection of Celia Cruz and other salsa albums I felt the need to pick up last year in New York? What about my mysterious ability to sing the lyrics of said salsa songs, despite them being in a language I've never learned to speak? Or maybe it's the fact that Henry told me that you have a tendency to sing and dance to Spanish music while you clean the house? There was also that time in the vault, were you talked about tapas, and a little while ago when you called me out on speaking broken Spanish."

Regina's eyes widened and her face flushed red at what her son had told his other mother about her weekend cleaning ritual. "I have no idea what you are talking about Ms. Swan."

Emma leaned back in her chair, as she crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at the former queen. Regina steadfastly refused to acknowledge her. "Ok, your gonna force me to prove it aren't you?" Not getting a reply from the olive skinned woman, Emma cleared her throat. "For the record, you forced me to do what comes next." She gave the older woman a chance to stop her, before she began singing in accented Spanish.

Nothing could have ever prepared her for the sight before her. Hearing the blonde singing accurate, if accented, salsa music, Regina's eyes widened in surprise and she had to slap a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing hysterically at the blonde's antics. Not only was she singing, but she also had her left fist to mouth as if holding a microphone and was swaying the rest of her body in time to the nonexistent music.

The younger woman was quite animated. Thankfully, she was in a wheeled chair as her actions were rolling the chair back and forth with the strength of her motions. As she reached the chorus, her voice must have carried out of the office, because Regina could see several of the alien officers turning to look at them. "Stop! Everyone is looking over here."

Emma smiled at having provoked such a strong response from the usually too serious woman. Waving a finger at her at Regina, she said, "Not until you say something in Spanish."

The older woman scrunched her eyebrows at her in slight confusion. "I just did. and ... you responded to it."

"What? No you didn't! You just said, 'stop. Everyone is looking.' in English. How could I have understood what you said, if you said that in Spanish?"

"That would be the translation probes I injected in you a few minutes ago. Which, if you recall, is supposed to help us communicate better." The captain said as she walked back into the room. "By the surprised looks on your faces, I take it you can understand *me* now as well?"

Seeing the muted looks of surprise on the women's faces, the captain nodded. "Good, let us start. Firstly, let me just confirm your identities. Emma Swan and Regina Mills of Storybrooke Maine?"

When they nodded their heads, she continued. "Occupations, sheriff and mayor?" Another nod.

"Mothers to one Henry Daniel Swan-Mills?" They hesitated at hearing the last name the captain used for their son. Though after a bit of thought it made sense. Henry was raised as a Mills but had just broken through a curse that had him believing he was a Swan for that time. Having just lost both mother's it easy to see how he might wish to keep some parts of them. Changing his name to Swan-Mills accomplished that and stayed true to both sets of memories he had of growing up with his mothers.

The captain noted the hesitance to her last question, but accepted their nod when it did come. However, before she had a chance to continue, she was interrupted when the dark haired woman suddenly stood. "Is he … is he here? Can we see him?"

She looked down at her notes, away from the hopeful women's faces and pursed her lips. "I'm very sorry. I … I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but according to my records, it's been about a hundred and seventy-two years since your disappearance."

Regina gasped and quickly covered her mouth with her hand. Her watery eyes tried to search the alien woman's face for any sign of this being some kind of cruel trick. However, the captain was unable to continue looking at the grieving mother and began inspecting the curious etching of a bird on her desk. With the last of her hope taken from her, she fell limply into her chair and silently wept.

Though desperately trying to keep in her tears, upon seeing Regina's reaction to the news, Emma's heart broke for her. Unable to resist what would likely be rejected as an unwanted gesture, Emma took Regina's free hand and tried to convey as much comfort as possible. To Emma's complete shock, Regina accepted the offer, squeezing her hand back so hard she nearly winced. Emma was actually somewhat thankful for the slight pain, as it grounded her and stopped her from the cold numbness that had started creeping in at the revelation of how far they had jumped into the future. Although it was much smaller than their largest estimates, at this far a jump it was irrelevant. The closest they could hope getting to Henry would be a great great great grandchild that might hopefully still be alive.

After a short bout of awkward silence, the captain stood slowly. "I am so sorry for your loss. We can continue this later, once one of your people gets here. They should have probably been here when you were informed."

She began walking toward the door, but stopped after a few steps. "Please forgive me if I wasn't sensitive enough, my experience with humans has actually been quite limited. If there is some kind of cultural expectation that I should have done but didn't or if I did something to minimize what you are going through, I deeply apologize. I'm sure Asari customs are probably nothing like human customs, so ... I'm sorry."

The woman lifted her hand to her darkening face. "Goddess help me I'm rambling like a maiden. I'm just going to leave now until you've had a chance to speak with one of your own people."

Once again, the woman began walking towards the door. Regina supposed that the darkening of the woman's face was her people's method of blushing. She wasn't sure what caused the sudden bout of Emma-like rambling on the part of this world's sheriff, but for some strange reason she found it amusing. It seemed, Emma Swan might have cursed the position with her special brand of idiocy. However, between her own sheriff's actions and the poor woman's rambling, they were able to, somehow, lift her spirit. At least, enough for her to exercise the self-control that was forcibly drilled into her by her mother from an early age. Giving the sheriff's hand one last, tight squeeze, she smiled at the embarrassed woman. "There's no need to leave, you haven't done anything wrong. I'm sure you have many questions for us, as, I can assure you, do we…."

Regina's voice trailed off as she forced the distraction of their current situation to the back of her mind and latched on to some of the things that came up within the conversation so far. First being that the captain mentioned 'Asari death rituals' in the context of them being different from human. Which meant then, that Asari was likely their species name. No doubt, Emma was likely mentally calling them 'blue skinned space babes' or some equally ridiculous phrase. More importantly though, this alien Asari woman living one hundred and seventy two years from their time, was somehow able to realize who they were. However, she was not the only one to do so. They were, in fact, probably only speaking with the captain now, because the initial officer recognized them when she asked them for their name.

Until that point, the officers treated them as complete strangers and trespassers onto their embassy. As soon as they said their names however, they received an immediate reaction from both their initial officer and the driver. So, how then, were they recognized? The captain obviously had a file on them. Likely taken directly from this office's missing person's or incident report, if David or someone else had bothered to actually create a file about it. But that didn't explain their arresting officers knowledge of them. While it might be possible that one of them had ran across their names or pictures in a file on the history of the town, multiple officers in the car immediately knew of them and mentioned a matriarch getting involved. Obviously, their appearance necessitated involving someone of authority to get involved.

Moreover, Captain L'Chell already seemed convinced that they were in fact the Emma Swan and Regina Mills of Storybrooke Maine that existed over a hundred and seventy years ago. Honestly, the captain's questions were to confirm their theory and not produce one. Regina gave the captain a suspicious look, "It would seem, however, that perhaps you seem to know more about the situation here than we do. Tell me, how exactly did you know who we were and when we came from?"

Captain L'Chell looked taken a back from the other woman's sudden shift in demeanor. However, before she had a chance to answer, the door to the office opened behind them. "Well that's an easy enough answer dearie, I told her."

Both time travelers turned to face just about the last familiar face either of them would have wanted to see. "Gold?!"

A/N 2: This fic is not exactly a true crossover per se. This story is set in the Mass Effect Universe, But Commander Shepard and the crew of the Normandy won't be making any appearances in the near future. Other characters from the mass effect universe will eventually play a larger role in this fic.


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